foreverknightfandomcom-20200216-history
American Old West
.]] The American Old West (also known as the "Wild West") is generally taken to be a cultural period between the American Civil War and the end of the 19th century as experienced in the western part of the United States of America when the country was expanding from one coast of the continent to the other. During part of that time, Nick Knight was in the Old West along with LaCroix and Janette. Whatever they did (the details of which were never specified), they came under suspicion of murder. A wanted poster was issued, with rough sketches of their faces. It offered a reward of $1000 for their capture. Travelling on his own, Nick came upon the camp of a man whom he took simply for a drifter. He stayed there that night, thinking that the other man was behaving in a friendly way when he offered a drink of whiskey. However, it was laced with curare; and the poison had an effect even on a vampire's constitution, though it did not kill him, but simply intoxicated him. When Nick was incapable of resistance, the supposed drifter revealed himself to be a bounty hunter. Only because LaCroix had been following him and killed the man did Nick escape capture. Early Exploration of the American West Although the first European settlements in the eastern portion of the continent date to the late 1500s, the American frontier only gradually moved westward. "The West" was always the area beyond that boundary. However, the terms "Old West" or "Wild West" are usually used to describe the area west of the Mississippi River during the nineteenth century. After the United States won its independence, migration began en masse over the Appalachians. The frontier was then extended approximately to the Mississippi River, which bisects the continental United States north-to-south from just west of the Great Lakes to the delta near New Orleans. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase greatly extended the new country's land claims with the purchase of an area which France had acquired from Spain just three years earlier but Napoleon considered no more than a liability. The American president, Thomas Jefferson, quickly ordered exploration and documentation of the vast new territory. At that time, the quest for furs was the primary commercial reason for the exploration and colonizing of North America. As the frontier moved westward, trappers and hunters moved ahead of settlers, searching out new supplies of beaver and other skins for shipment to Europe. They formed the first working relationships with the Native Americans in the West. About 1812, they learned about the South Pass through the central Rocky Mountains, which would become a major route for settlers to Oregon and Washington. By 1830, however, fashions changed in Europe and beaver hats were replaced by silk hats, sharply reducing the need for American furs. The era of the "Mountain men"—trappers and scouts—came to an end by 1845, as the trade in beaver fur virtually ceased. Settling the Far West "Manifest Destiny" was the belief that the United States was pre-ordained by God to expand from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. The concept was expressed during Colonial times, but became a rallying cry for expansionists in the 1840s. Implicit is the position that the American claim supersedes―by God's favor―that of foreign nations or the native peoples. Manifest Destiny's popularity in the Midwest states and the addition of federal encouragement created a climate which helped start the "Great Migrations" to Oregon, California, and the Great Basin. Also spurring settlers westward were the emigrant "guide books" of the 1840s promising fertile farm land beyond the Rockies. These included route information supplied by the fur traders and survey expeditions. Independence, Missouri became the starting point for caravans of "Prairie Schooner" wagons which traveled the Oregon and California trails. The journey was two thousand miles long, progess slow and arduous. Settlers had to overcome extreme climate, lack of food and clean water, disease, broken down wagons, and exhausted draft animals; but unlike the depiction in films, the journey was generally absent of Indian attacks. The Railroad The end of the Mexican War and the first migrations to California and Oregon prompted the federal government to chart the remaining unexplored regions of the West, establishing boundaries, and planning possible routes for a transcontinental railroad. Speculators were quick to follow the activities of the surveyors and this prompted further migration and business development. The survey heightened public awareness of the West, spurring further settlement which ultimately increased conflict with the tribes of the Great Plains. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 finally hastened the transition of the transcontinental railroad from dream to reality. Existing rail lines, particularly belonging to the Union Pacific, had already reached westward about half way across the continent. The Central Pacific, starting in California, was extended eastward across the Sierras to link with the Union Pacific heading west. The two finally met on May 10, 1869. A cross-country trip was thus reduced from about four months to one week. Settling the Plains After the American Civil War, many people from the East Coast and Europe were lured west by reports from relatives and by extensive advertising campaigns. The new railroads provided an opportunity for migrants to go out and take a look, with special "land exploring tickets", the cost of which could be applied to land purchases offered by the railroads. The truth was that farming the plains was more difficult than back east: water management was more critical, lightning fires more prevalent, weather more extreme, rainfall less predictable. But most migrants were unaware of these complications. Their chief motivation to move west was to find a better economic life than the one they had. The rise of the cattle industry and the cowboy is directly tied to the demise of the huge bison herds of the Great Plains. Once numbering over twenty-five million, bison were a vital resource animal for the Plains Indians, providing food, hides for clothing and shelter, and bones for implements. Drought, loss of habitat, disease, and over-hunting steadily reduced the herds through the nineteenth century to the point of near extinction. The greatest negative effect on the herds was the huge markets opened up by the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Hides in great quantities were tanned into leather and fashioned into clothing and furniture. As many as five bison were killed for each one that reached market, and most of the meat was left to rot on the plains and at trackside after removal of the hides. By the 1870s, the great slaughter of bison had a major impact on the lifestyle of the Plains Indians. The sharp decline of the bison herds created a vacuum which was exploited by the growing cattle industry. After the Civil War―with railheads available at Abilene, Kansas City, Dodge City, and Wichita―Texas ranchers raised large herds of longhorn cattle and drove them north. A typical drive would take three to four months and contained two miles of cattle six abreast. Despite the risks, they were very profitable. By the 1870s and 1880's, cattle ranches expanded further north into new grazing grounds, replacing the bison herds in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska and the Dakota territory. Gradually, longhorns were replaced by the American breeds of Hereford and Angus, introduced by settlers from the Northwest. Though less hardy and more disease-prone, these breeds produced better tasting beef and matured faster. Open range cattle ranching came to an end and was replaced by barbed wire spreads where water, breeding, feeding, and grazing could be controlled. This led to "fence wars" which erupted over disputes about water rights. Anchoring the booming cattle industry of the 1860s and 1870's were the cattle towns. These would spring up as land speculators rushed in ahead of a proposed rail line to build a town with the supporting services attractive to the cattlemen and the cowboys. Unlike the mining towns, which in many cases became ghost towns after the ore played out, cattle towns often switched to serving a local farming community after grazing lands were exhausted. Indeed, in some cases, resistance by moral reformers and alliances of businessmen drove the cattle trade out of town. Since these towns grew rapidly, law and order often took a while to establish itself. Vigilante justice did occur, but in many cases, it subsided when adequate police forces were appointed. In reality, the main activity of law enforcement in cattle towns was knocking down drunks and hauling them away before they hurt themselves or others, somewhat akin to naval military police controlling shore leave. They also disarmed cowboys who violated gun control edicts, tried to prevent duelling, and dealt with flagrant breaches of gambling and prostitution ordinances. After the eleventh U.S. Census was taken in 1890, it became clear that there was no longer a clear line of advancing settlement, and hence no longer a frontier in the continental United States. The West was finally conquered, achieving Manifest Destiny, in less than one hundred years after the frontier breached the Mississippi River. ::Adapted from the Wikipedia article on the American Old West. Category:Historical Background